Trevor MacAusland is about half-way to his goal.

In the autumn of 2011, the Executive Director of PropelICT announced the tech advocacy group in New Brunswick would start an accelerator called Launch36 with the goal of nurturing 36 companies over three years. Last night in Fredericton, seven teams pitched to a packed auditorium and successfully completed the program. Added to the 10 teams that completed the program in June last year, Launch36 has now debuted 17 companies, meaning MacAusland is just about half way to his goal.

Of course he’s way ahead of schedule, as he’s at the half way

TotalPave, a Fredericton startup founded by brothers Drew and Coady Cameron, has won the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s 2013 Breakthru business plan competition for its system to help cities and towns assess road conditions.

The company, whose smartphone app and analytics system help municipalities determine which roads need repairs, walked away with the top prize of $192,000, consisting of $160,000 in cash and $32,000 in professional services.

The Breakthru contest is held every second year to find the best business plan in New Brunswick. The foundation’s chief executive, Calvin

Trevor Hickey believes crowdfunding can solve what is becoming a huge problem for young adults -- student debt.

Hickey is on the verge of launching FundUni, a St. John's -based startup that aims to help students raise money online for their tuition, and let people with money feel they contributed to the future of a young person.

"We want to tackle student debt and we want to do it in a unique way, by connecting students with their communities," said Hickey sitting in a coffee house in St. John's on Wednesday.

Hickey is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, and his own

RTV Group, the Saint John startup producing predictive analytics software to help fight drunk driving, is looking for about a half-million dollars in financing to get its initial product out the door.

It could take a big step in that direction tonight if it wins the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition, which boasts a first prize of $192,000. If not, it hopes to raise the money by other means.

“Our target between now and the end of the year is to do about $500,000, which would get us to about four paid customers and one or two trials,” said Stephen Goddard, a

As they head toward the Breakthru finals on Wednesday, brothers Drew and Coady Cameron are working on the branding and algorithms for their nascent product, TotalPave.

TotalPave is a Fredericton startup that aims to revolutionize the way cities and towns assess which roads need to be paved. The idea is so impressive that the Cameron brothers won the national Nicol Entrepreneurial Award for a new technology coming from a Canadian university last year.

Now they are one of five finalists in the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition, and will find out Wednesday night

Mikeal Abramoff believes he’s on the cutting edge of a big Internet story — community marketplaces for short-term accommodation.

Abramoff is the founder of Saint John-based Store It Squirrel, which links people needing storage with those who have space to rent.

The company’s site is live with what he calls “a great beta version” with about 80 listings in New Brunswick and Toronto.

It’s doing well enough that Store It Squirrel is one of five finalists for the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthu Competition. The winner will be announced Wednesday.

Store It Squirrel allows

SimplyCast, the Dartmouth-based multi-channel marketing company, has announced the launch of a paid internship program for high school students -- the only one of its kind in Canada.

The Next Star Employee champions the education and advancement of high school students while promoting the development of future leaders. Students with a passion for learning have the opportunity to build and strengthen their skills and have their ideas impact a successful real-world company.

The paid internship takes place over the summer months and gives students the opportunity to interact with

When Nathan Armstrong talks about becoming one of the finalists for the Breakthru business plan competition, he’s quick to give a lot of the credit to entrepreneurial programs at University of New Brunswick.

Armstrong and his brother Gregory are the Co-Founders of CeteX, which is devising a system to help companies treat wastewater, and in essence they represent two sides of the entrepreneurial education system at UNB.

Gregory is an engineering student in the engineering school’s highly regarded Technology Management & Entrepreneurship, or TME, program. Nathan is a graduate of the

When the five finalists in New Brunswick’s Breakthru competition gather in their finest suits on Wednesday, you’ll know the Black Magic team by the cans of pink spray paint they’re carrying.

But there won’t be any paint smeared on their hands.

The trio of University of New Brunswick engineering students made the finals of the province’s business plan competition by producing a special formula that can remove industrial dirt and grime — even paint — in seconds.

Greg Bailey, Steven Likely and Garrett Nelson developed the product as part of their studies. They entered the Breakthru

Nathan Armstrong recently quit his job to focus full time on CeteX, the cleantech startup he and his brother Gregory started to help industrial facilities clean up wastewater.

Cetex is one of five finalists in the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition, which will award $406,000 in cash and services to the three top teams at a dinner in Fredericton on Wednesday. Obviously the Armstrong brothers are hoping CeteX walks away with the gold for the prestige that comes with the win, but they also could use the $192,000 first prize (which includes as much as $160,000 in